


Nightmares

by MadelaineHeartEyes



Category: Chilling Adventures of Sabrina (TV 2018)
Genre: Angst, Gen, Zelda is a big softie, fluff but not romantic fluff
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-11-12
Updated: 2018-11-12
Packaged: 2019-08-22 18:24:21
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,053
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16603208
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MadelaineHeartEyes/pseuds/MadelaineHeartEyes
Summary: Zelda Spellman has had her fair share of nightmares.





	Nightmares

Zelda Spellman had had her fair share of nightmares. The few who knew could never understand why the straight-backed and fearless witch suffered such torment in her sleep - and she least of all.

***

There had been a few at the Academy - mainly memories of her Harrowing, during which she had stood silent and dry-eyed. That didn’t stop them haunting her for decades. She had woken sweating and shaking more times than she could count, often with her own hand clenched against her mouth to contain any sounds.

One such night she bolted upright in the narrow bed to find the girl next to her watching open-eyed as she began to dry heave over the side of the bed, shivering uncontrollably despite the mild weather, and taking gulping, ragged breaths. She expected the laughter, the ridicule, when she told the other girls and Zelda lost the reputation she had so painstakingly built. But the laughter did not come. Instead, the girl slipped out of her own bed to sit on the end of Zelda’s. Then oh so gently, she took both of Zelda’s hands between her own. And there they stayed for what felt like hours, until Zelda stopped shaking, and her breathing returned to normal. She barely had time to whisper a ‘thank you’ before the other girl had left for her own bed again.

She slept more soundly than she had in years.

***

Once she had left behind the stark pentagon rooms and dagger stares, the memories of her Harrowing began to leave her, bit by bit. But it was replaced by something more horrific. The most vivid dreams of being burnt alive, feeling the flesh bubble on her bones as the mortals of Greendale laughed, and laughed, ignoring her pleas and screaming, until she awoke, sobbing violently, clawing at her skin with her long pointed nails. The blood ran in rivulets down her arms and chest, staining the sheets as she took great gulping breaths of the air around her, feeling suffocated by the heat in the bedroom

She began leaving her bedroom window open, learnt the best spells for healing cuts. And kept her nails short.

***

After Edward’s death, they got worse, and became all too frequent. For months after the tragedy, she saw him crushed in the rubble, burned alive while shouting for her help. She awoke screaming his name and flailing in the air to get to him. It was these nights that Hilda lept out of her bed, encircling her sister’s form. At first she pushed away, but then collapsed into her Hilda’s arms. She began to rock her gently, as Zelda sobbed loudly into her shoulder, silent tears falling down her own face as she watched her iron-hearted sister fall to pieces. She sat with her until she fell back asleep, stroking her soft hair away from her wet face, tucking her back beneath the covers.

Zelda seldom remembered in the morning, but Hilda couldn’t help watching her carefully as though she may break in front of her all over again - almost every night, she did. But slowly, slowly, Zelda began to suffer in silence once more.

***

When Sabrina was a toddler, she had almost nightly dreams of every possible tragedy that could befall her. She would awake with a start, and check on her almost hourly throughout the night, listening for her breaths in the silence of the house.

If Hilda noticed, she never mentioned it.

***

Only once had Zelda and Faustus slept in the same bed. And in the moonlight she had awoken in a cold sweat, for once paralysed with fear rather than writhing as her eyes darted around the unfamiliar surroundings. As she shook, she felt Faustus’ hand fastened around her wrist even in his sleep, keeping her there should she try to bolt.

In that moment, she knew she could never let what they had become anything more.

***

It must have been three in the morning as Sabrina padded back up the stairs to her bedroom, still flushed with sleep and almost spilling her glass of water, then rolling her eyes at her own expense. What was the point of finally becoming a full witch if you stayed as clumsy as before? However, as she tiptoed past her aunts’ rooms, she heard what sounded like a muffled scream from Zelda’s room, followed by erratic breaths. Frowning, she knocked on the door timidly.

“Auntie Zee?”

When she got no response, she pushed the door open gently.

She didn’t know what she would find inside, but she feared it may be a Satanic sacrifice, or perhaps a visit from a gentleman friend (her aunt was not as discreet as she seemed to believe). The one thing she had not expected was to see her aunt shaking with sobs; one hand clawing at the sheets, the other alternating between covering her mouth and clutching at her chest.

Sabrina abandoned the glass on the dresser by the door, hurrying over to Zelda’s bed and sitting down. She loosened her aunt’s grip on the sheets, then took her face in her hands, pushing back her hair and stroking her thumbs over her cheeks.

“What happened? Are you okay?”

For a moment Zelda seemed unable to respond, simply shaking her head, eyes wide, trying to pull away, but Sabrina placed her hands on her shoulders and turned her back to face her.

“What’s wrong?”

Zelda managed to stutter out three words - “J...Just a d...dream” - while once more trying to remove Sabrina’s hands and pull away. But at this, she threw her arms around her shaking aunt, rubbing comforting circles on her back. Slowly but surely, the tension left her shoulders, her breathing returned to normal, and she began to relax into Sabrina’s arms.

Sabrina went to pull the covers back over her aunt, but Zelda caught her wrist, and a little of the fear returned to her eyes. Sabrina slipped under, and they lay foreheads together, hands clutched between them. Just when she thought Zelda may have finally fallen back asleep, she heard her speak softly, her voice cracking slightly.

“My Sabrina. I love you so much.”

Sabrina felt herself well up as new tears rolled her aunt’s cheeks.

“I love you Zelda.”

They gripped each others hands tightly, and finally fell back to sleep.

**Author's Note:**

> This is my first piece of fanfic ever, so I'm super excited to post it on a community I have learnt so much from! I hope you enjoy :)


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